Tag Archives: driftwood centerpiece

Our hairbrained idea of using driftwood as our wedding centerpieces ended up being a huge hit!

Following is how we prepared our own DIY driftwood centerpieces:

Obtain driftwood. We found ours in the Potomac after it flooded. Many of them were waterlogged and covered in bugs (ew). We chose pieces 2-3 ft long, for 6′ round tables.

Let dry on porch for about a month.

Go to Home Depot for supplies: shellac (will need ~1 can for about 10 logs; we went through 2 cans for 22 logs), rubber gloves, gas mask, cheap paint brushes, tarp.

4. Spread dried logs out over the tarp. Put on mask & gloves.

5. Completely cover in shellac. Depending on the type of wood and how dry it is, you may need to apply several coats. We applied 2 coats to ours, letting it dry overnight.

Don’t get me wrong, it was a BIG job. It really paid off though. Now we are hoping to re-purpose the logs yet again and make them into wine racks and shelves.

This is the perfect “green” alternative to a typical flower centerpiece arrangement, not to mention MUCH cheaper. All told we spent about $150 on the supplies, maybe 5 hours of labor, and ended up with 22 centerpieces.

The Potomac flooded a couple of weeks ago, resulting in a bunch of restaurants on the waterfront as well as Hains Point having to shut down.

It recently reopened and that’s where I found myself on Friday afternoon when I took out my road bike to do a few laps. The golf course area is open, but the rest of Hains is still closed to cars because it is covered in debris, mostly logs. They’ve cleared the majority of it to allow for runners and bikers, but there is still driftwood lying all over the place.

We’ve been talking about what to do for the table centerpieces for awhile and it has turned into a pretty hot topic. Our parents and friends all have their own ideas of what we should do, so Dave and I decided to take it over and decide for ourselves what to do for those. It’s hard because I want them to be unique, reflect the outdoor setting, and also not cost a ton…. quite the dilemma in the wedding world!

Anyway, seeing all the logs while on my bike ride started turning the cogs in my head…. could we use those??? When I saw Dave that evening, I had made dinner with a small piece of driftwood as the centerpiece. Our conversation followed:

Me: “Hey, so I have some really great news and some not so great of news”

Dave: “Uh oh”

Me: “The good news is that I figured out what we can do for our centerpieces, and it’s going to be super cheap!!!”

Dave: “Oh no”

Me: “Buuuuut… it will involve some manual labor. I want to wake up early tomorrow and go pick up a bunch of logs off of Hains Point. It will be fun!”

Dave: “Woof. So I guess that means I’ll need to cancel my tee time for tomorrow morning then?”

Me: “That would be nice” (smiles)

So that’s how I ended up dragging Dave over to Hains Point to load 25 stinky logs into the back of my car on Saturday morning. Most of them were partially waterlogged and had bugs living in them. I sustained a number of spider and ant bites which I was NOT too happy about. Dave sustained some sunburns. No pain no gain!!!

It took about an hour and a half to walk around loading all the logs into the car while people made comments. Then we had to use a pretty sophisticated (not) system of putting the logs into little pulley carts and taking them up the elevator.

They are all currently on my porch drying out. Hopefully that won’t take very long.

In the meantime I’m trying to figure out exactly what to do with them. Tealights are an easy answer, but I actually am trying to avoid standard tealights due to our outdoor location. If there is even a hint of wind, they are going to be useless!

I found a few examples online but nothing even close to how beautiful I’m planning to make them! The only examples I could find used grapewood from California. I guess ours will be the east coast version? Stay tuned for this work in progress!